CAS BACnet Explorer (Chipkin) is a genuinely capable, completely free tool — BACnet/IP, MS/TP and BACnet/SC discovery and browsing, no license key required. If your site is BACnet-only and you never need to edit a schedule in a grid or touch Modbus, it's hard to beat free. BACManager is for the sites that aren't that clean — a Schedule and Calendar editor, Modbus RTU/TCP meters on the same panel, and a Gateway that bridges BACnet into a PLC's Modbus map — for $149 one-time.
Windows 10/11 · one-time license · 14-day trial
Per Chipkin's own product page, CAS BACnet Explorer covers BACnet/IP, MS/TP over RS-485 (with a standard USB adapter), and BACnet/SC, plus device discovery, property read/write, EDE 2.3 export and a built-in simulator — free, with no license key, commercial use included. That's a strong free tool, and if a site is purely BACnet with no scheduling to edit and no Modbus in the picture, there's little reason to pay for anything else.
Checked against Chipkin's public product page in August 2026 — both tools are actively developed and this may have changed. Verify current features on each vendor's site before deciding.
| Capability | CAS BACnet Explorer | BACManager |
|---|---|---|
| BACnet/IP discovery (whoIs) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Property browser (read/write) | ✓ | ✓ |
| MS/TP over RS-485 | ✓ (USB-RS485 adapter) | ✓ full master node |
| BACnet/SC (Secure Connect) | ✓ | ✗ not yet |
| Built-in BACnet device simulator | ✓ | ✓ |
| EDE export | ✓ (2.3 CSV) | ✓ EDE 2.3 + CSV |
| Schedule & Calendar editor (grid) | ✗ | ✓ editable weekly grid |
| Modbus RTU / TCP polling | ✗ | ✓ built in |
| BACnet-to-Modbus gateway (bridge to a PLC) | ✗ | ✓ Gateway, read + write |
| Platform | Windows, Linux (macOS coming) | Windows 10/11 |
| Licensing | Free | $149 one-time |
CAS BACnet Explorer's feature set per Chipkin's public documentation, August 2026 — it is actively maintained and may have changed. Check both projects' current documentation before deciding.
Weekly grid editing for Schedule and Calendar objects, validated byte-for-byte against reference stacks — not raw property values or a vendor tool detour.
RTU and TCP polling for the meters and drives that share almost every real BACnet site, in the same window as the BACnet side.
Map a BACnet present-value into a shared Modbus register map a PLC reads directly — and write back from the PLC through BACnet's priority array, not a blind overwrite.
If your work is entirely BACnet — IP, MS/TP or SC — and there's no schedule that needs a real editing grid and no Modbus device on the site, CAS BACnet Explorer is free, capable, and actively maintained. It's also currently ahead on BACnet/SC, which BACManager doesn't support yet. BACManager earns its price on the messier sites: Modbus meters or drives sharing the panel, schedules that need on-site editing, or a PLC that needs BACnet data without speaking BACnet itself. The fastest way to know which camp a given site falls into is to run BACManager's free trial against it.
Download the free trial and run it next to CAS BACnet Explorer or your current tool — no credit card, no cloud.
Windows 10/11 · $149 one-time
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